Resource discovery agent computing device, software application, and method

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method for retrieving information from information services and providing it to a public application programming interface (API) includes receiving a first request data message using a core discovery agent, the request data message including at least one requested datum, for which a value is sought, and at least one known datum, for which a value is known; calling a resource locator to request a location of an information service that provides a value for the requested datum; calling a resource façade to contact the information service; transmitting a first information service message including the requested datum and known datum from the resource façade to the information service; receiving a second information service message from the information service including a value for the requested datum; and transmitting a resolved data message including the requested datum and its value from the core discovery agent to the public API.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The current application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/808,575, titled “RESOURCE DISCOVERY AGENT COMPUTING DEVICE, SOFTWAREAPPLICATION, AND METHOD”, filed Nov. 9, 2017, which claims prioritybenefit, with regarding to all common subject matter, to U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/422,262, titled “RESOURCE DISCOVERYAGENT COMPUTING DEVICE, SOFTWARE APPLICATION, AND METHOD”, filed Nov.15, 2016; U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/425,286, titled“RESOURCE DISCOVERY AGENT COMPUTING DEVICE, SOFTWARE APPLICATION, ANDMETHOD”, filed Nov. 22, 2016; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.62/487,132, titled “RESOURCE DISCOVERY AGENT COMPUTING DEVICE, SOFTWAREAPPLICATION, AND METHOD”, filed Apr. 19, 2017. The contents of theseprovisional applications are incorporated by reference, in theirentirety and for all purposes, herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure generally relates to computing devices, softwareapplications, and methods that retrieving information from a pluralityof information services and providing it to a public applicationprogramming interface (API).

BACKGROUND

Software that allows computing systems to communicate with one another,share resources, and retrieve information may require business rules togovern the manner in which the systems interact. This may be a drawbackbecause the business rules are often specific to a particular businessunit and limit wider usage of the software.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present technology relate to computing devices,software applications, computer-implemented methods, andcomputer-readable media for retrieving information from a plurality ofinformation services and providing it to a public applicationprogramming interface (API). The present embodiments overcome theabove-discussed problems by avoiding the usage of business rules.

In a first aspect, a computer-implemented method for retrievinginformation from a plurality of information services and providing it toa public application programming interface (API) may be provided. Themethod may include, via one or more processors and/or transceivers: (1)receiving a first request data message using a core discovery agent, therequest data message including at least one requested datum, for which avalue is sought, and at least one known datum, for which a value isknown; (2) calling a resource locator to request a location of aninformation service that provides a value for the requested datum; (3)calling a resource definitions database to find a definition associatedwith the requested datum; (4) returning the location of the informationservice and at least one input datum if the resource definitionsdatabase includes the definition associated with the requested datum;(5) calling a resource façade to contact the information service if theinput datum matches the known datum; (6) transmitting a firstinformation service message including the requested datum and the knowndatum from the resource façade to the information service; (7) receivinga second information service message from the information serviceincluding a value for the requested datum; (8) returning the requesteddatum and its value from the resource façade to the core discoveryagent; and/or (9) transmitting a resolved data message including therequested datum and its value from the core discovery agent to thepublic API. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternativeactions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

In another aspect, a computing device for retrieving information from aplurality of information services and providing it to a public API maybe provided. The computing device may include a communication element, amemory element, and a processing element. The communication element maybe configured to provide electronic communication with a communicationnetwork. The processing element may be electronically coupled to thememory element. The processing element may be configured to receive afirst request data message using a core discovery agent, the requestdata message including at least one requested datum, for which a valueis sought, and at least one known datum, for which a value is known;call a resource locator to request a location of an information servicethat provides a value for the requested datum; call a resourcedefinitions database to find a definition associated with the requesteddatum; return the location of the information service and at least oneinput datum if the resource definitions database includes the definitionassociated with the requested datum; call a resource façade to contactthe information service if the input datum matches the known datum;transmit a first information service message including the requesteddatum and the known datum from the resource façade to the informationservice; receive a second information service message from theinformation service including a value for the requested datum; returnthe requested datum and its value from the resource façade to the corediscovery agent; and/or transmit a resolved data message including therequested datum and its value from the core discovery agent to thepublic API. The computing device may include additional, fewer, oralternate components and/or functionality, including that discussedelsewhere herein.

In yet another aspect, a software application for retrieving informationfrom a plurality of information services and providing it to a publicAPI may be provided. The software application may comprise a corediscovery agent, a resource locator, a resource definitions database,and/or a resource façade. The core discovery agent may be configured toreceive messages from the public API or from itself, the messagesincluding at least one requested datum and at least one known datum. Thecore discovery agent may be further configured to determine whetheradditional information is needed and, if so, then call another softwareapplication component, or send a request data message to itself, and ifnot, then transmit a resolved data message to the public API. Theresource locator may be configured to receive the call from the corediscovery agent, to send a query for a definition associated with therequested datum, and to return the definition information to the corediscovery agent. The resource definitions database may include adefinition for each of a plurality of requested datums and may beconfigured to receive the query from the resource locator and to providerequested datum information. The resource façade may be configured tosend a request for a value for the requested datum to an informationservice, to receive the requested datum and its value from theinformation service, and to return the requested datum and its value tothe core discovery agent. The software application may includeadditional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussedelsewhere herein.

Advantages of these and other embodiments will become more apparent tothose skilled in the art from the following description of the exemplaryembodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration.As will be realized, the present embodiments described herein may becapable of other and different embodiments, and their details arecapable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawingsand description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not asrestrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The Figures described below depict various aspects of computing devices,software applications, and computer-implemented methods disclosedtherein. It should be understood that each Figure depicts an embodimentof a particular aspect of the disclosed computing devices, softwareapplications, and computer-implemented methods, and that each of theFigures is intended to accord with a possible embodiment thereof.Further, wherever possible, the following description refers to thereference numerals included in the following Figures, in which featuresdepicted in multiple Figures are designated with consistent referencenumerals. The present embodiments are not limited to the precisearrangements and instrumentalities shown in the Figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment in which various componentsof a computing device may be utilized, the computing device configuredto retrieve information from a plurality of information services andprovide it to a public application programming interface (API);

FIG. 2 illustrates various components of an exemplary resource discoveryagent shown in block schematic form;

FIG. 3 illustrates various components of the exemplary computing deviceshown in block schematic form;

FIG. 4 is a table illustrating an exemplary format of a request datamessage;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary request data message;

FIG. 6 is a table illustrating an exemplary format of a resolved datamessage;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary resolved data message;

FIG. 8 is a table illustrating an exemplary format of a discoveryresolution data message;

FIG. 9 is a table illustrating an exemplary format of an unresolved datamessage;

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate at least a portion of the steps of anexemplary computer-implemented method for retrieving information from aplurality of information services and providing it to a public API;

FIG. 11 is a table illustrating an example of priority of resources;

FIG. 12 is a table illustrating various components of another embodimentof a resource discovery agent in general form; and

FIG. 13 is a table illustrating an example of the resource discoveryagent of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a table illustrating the resource discovery agent of FIG. 13at a later point in time;

FIG. 15 is a table illustrating the resource discovery agent of FIG. 14at a later point in time;

FIG. 16 is a table illustrating the resource discovery agent of FIG. 15at a later point in time; and

FIG. 17 is a table illustrating the resource discovery agent of FIG. 16at a later point in time.

The Figures depict exemplary embodiments for purposes of illustrationonly. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the followingdiscussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principlesof the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present embodiments described in this patent application and otherpossible embodiments may relate to, inter alia, computing devices,software applications, and methods that provide improvements to themanner in which computing devices, specifically, communicate with oneanother, share resources, and manage data. In particular, the presentembodiments provide improvements in retrieving information from aplurality of information services and providing it to a publicapplication programming interface (API). A computing device, throughhardware operation, execution of a software application, implementationof a method, or combinations thereof, may be utilized as follows. Thecomputing device may operate in a web or network communicationenvironment in which users, such as customers or potential customers, oremployees, such as agents of an insurance provider, are trying toretrieve information, such as rates or premiums for a homeowners, auto,health, or life insurance policy. The computing device, such as a data,file, or web server, may execute a resource discovery agent, whichincludes the following components: a core discovery agent, a resourcelocator, a resource definitions database, and a resource façade. In someembodiments, the computing device may also execute the public API, whichmay be a component of, or in communication with, a web interface on awebsite which receives requests and/or inputs from the user. The publicAPI may additionally or alternatively be a component of, or incommunication with, an interface for data retrieval software utilizedwithin a group, company, or corporation.

During operation, the user (customer, potential customer, insuranceagent, etc.) may, through a web browser or other software interface,request information, such as an insurance premium. Typically, the userwill also provide some information, such as a name, a house address, avehicle make and model, or the like. Either directly or indirectly, thepublic API may receive the request and the input data. The public APImay then generate a request data message and send it to the resourcediscovery agent. The core discovery agent may receive the message andbegin a discovery process by analyzing the message. The information thatis requested may be considered requested datums, while the informationthat is provided may be considered known datums. The core discoveryagent may call the resource locator to find a location of an informationservice that will provide values for the requested datums, the resourcelocator may query the resource definitions database for a definition ofthe requested datums, wherein the definition includes the location ofthe information service as well as the information, or input datums,required by the information service in order to provide values for therequested datums. The resource locator may return the definitioninformation to the core discovery agent, which may call the resourcefaçade to contact the information service.

The resource façade may also translate the requested datums and theknown datums into a protocol used by the information service before theresource façade sends a message to the information service. Theinformation service may return values for the requested datums to theresource façade, which in turn, translates the requested datums andtheir values into a protocol used within the resource discovery agent.The core discovery agent may receive the requested datums and theirvalues from the resource façade and may transmit a resolved datamessage, which includes the requested datums and their values, to thepublic API.

In some instances, the information service may require input datums thatwere not provided in the original data request message. In such cases,the core discovery agent may transmit a second data request message toitself which presents the input datums as new requested datums. Thesenew requested datums may also be considered intermediate requesteddatums. The core discovery agent may then go through the same process asdiscussed above, wherein it requests the location of the informationservice which can provide values for the new requested datums. Theresource façade may contact the information service and receive therequested values therefrom. After the core discovery agent receives thevalues for the new requested datums, it may transmit a discoveryresolution message to itself to indicate that values for intermediaterequested datums have been received, but that values for the originalrequested datums still have to be discovered. This stage of the processmay be repeated multiple times until values for all intermediate datumshave been found.

If the resource definitions database does not include a definition forthe requested datums, or if the information service cannot be contact orcannot provide the requested information, then the core discovery agentmay transmit an unresolved data message to the public API, wherein themessage includes a reason for why the requested information cannot befound.

The present embodiments may provide computing devices, softwareapplications, and methods that are scalable and modular. Definitions ofrequested datums in the resource definitions database may added ordeleted. The definitions may also be modified to increase or decreasethe scope of each definition. In addition, the resource discovery agentmay iterate the discovery process numerous times to find values forintermediate datums which are required in order to discover values forthe original requested datums. Furthermore, the resource discovery agentdoes not need to follow business rules to operate, so it can be utilizedin multiple business settings.

Exemplary Computing Device

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary environment in which embodiments of acomputing device 10 may be utilized. The environment may include acommunication network 12 and a plurality of electronic devices 14. Thecomputing device 10 may execute a resource discovery agent 16, shown inFIG. 2, which retrieves information from a plurality of informationservices 18 and provides it to a public application programminginterface (API) 20. The resource discovery agent 16 may be utilized in aweb environment, wherein one or more users, each using an electronicdevice 14, are trying to access information from a website through thecommunication network 12. For example, a user may try to get an estimatefor a premium on home insurance or auto insurance from an insuranceprovider website. As another example, an insurance agent orrepresentative may also try to retrieve a premium estimate for one ofhis customers.

The communication network 12 generally allows communication between theelectronic devices 14 and the computing devices 10. The communicationnetwork 12 may include local area networks, metro area networks, widearea networks, cloud networks, the Internet, cellular networks, plainold telephone information service (POTS) networks, and the like, orcombinations thereof. The communication network 12 may be wired,wireless, or combinations thereof and may include components such asmodems, gateways, switches, routers, hubs, access points, repeaters,towers, and the like. The electronic devices 14 and the computingdevices 10 may connect to the communication network 12 either throughwires, such as electrical cables or fiber optic cables, or wirelessly,such as radio frequency (RF) communication using wireless standards suchas cellular 2G, 3G, or 4G, Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards such as WiFi, IEEE 802.16 standardssuch as WiMAX, Bluetooth™, or combinations thereof.

Each electronic device 14 may include data processing and storagehardware, a display, data input components such as a keyboard, a mouse,a touchscreen, etc., and communication components that provide wired orwireless communication. Each electronic device 14 may further includesoftware such as a web browser, at the least, which allows the user toaccess websites. Examples of the electronic devices 14 include desktopcomputers, laptop computers, palmtop computers, tablet computers, smartphones, wearable electronics, smart watches, wearables, or the like, orcombinations thereof.

The computing device 10, as shown in FIG. 2, may broadly comprise acommunication element 22, a memory element 24, and a processing element26. Examples of the computing device 10 may include one or more computerservers, such as web servers, application servers, database servers,file servers, or the like, or combinations thereof. The computing device10 may additionally or alternatively include computers such asworkstation or desktop computers.

The communication element 22 generally allows the computing device 10 tocommunicate with the communication network 12 or other computing devices10. Also, the resource discovery agent's 16 communication with thepublic API 20 and the information services 18 may occur using thecommunication element 22. The communication element 22 may includesignal and/or data transmitting and receiving circuits, such asantennas, amplifiers, filters, mixers, oscillators, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), and the like. The communication element 22 mayestablish communication wirelessly by utilizing RF signals and/or datathat comply with communication standards such as cellular 2G, 3G, or 4G,WiFi, WiMAX, Bluetooth™, or combinations thereof. Alternatively, or inaddition, the communication element 22 may establish communicationthrough connectors or couplers that receive metal conductor wires orcables which are compatible with networking technologies such asethernet. In certain embodiments, the communication element 22 may alsocouple with optical fiber cables. The communication element 22 may be incommunication with the memory element 24 and the processing element 26.

The memory element 24 may include data storage components such asread-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM, erasable programmable ROM,random-access memory (RAM) such as static RAM (SRAM) or dynamic RAM(DRAM), cache memory, hard disks, floppy disks, optical disks, flashmemory, thumb drives, universal serial bus (USB) drives, or the like, orcombinations thereof. In some embodiments, the memory element 24 may beembedded in, or packaged in the same package as, the processing element26. The memory element 24 may include, or may constitute, a“computer-readable medium.” The memory element 24 may store theinstructions, code, code segments, software, firmware, programs,applications, apps, information services, daemons, or the like,including the resource discovery agent 16, that are executed by theprocessing element 26.

The processing element 26 may include processors, microprocessors(single-core and multi-core), microcontrollers, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), analog and/ordigital application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or the like,or combinations thereof. The processing element 26 may generallyexecute, process, or run instructions, code, code segments, software,firmware, programs, applications, apps, processes, information services,daemons, or the like. The processing element 26 may also includehardware components such as finite-state machines, sequential andcombinational logic, and other electronic circuits that may perform thefunctions necessary for the operation of the current invention. Theprocessing element 26 may be in communication with the other electroniccomponents through serial or parallel links that include address buses,data buses, control lines, and the like.

By utilizing hardware, firmware, software, or combinations thereof, theprocessing element 26 may perform the following tasks. The processingelement 26 may execute or run the resource discovery agent 16, whichretrieves information from one or more information services 18 andprovides it to the public API 20. The information services 18 aresources of information or data and may include databases, data stores,websites, calculation engines, and so forth. The information services 18may be located anywhere, such as within a company or anywhere in theworld that is accessible by the communication network 12. Typically,each information service 18 may receive a query for information and,after searching, sorting, computing, etc., may return the requestedinformation.

In some cases, the information service 18 may require some input databefore it can retrieve the information. For example, if the informationservice 18 is requested to provide an estimated premium or current valueof a particular automobile, the information service 18 may need to knowdata such as a vehicle identification number (VIN), a make, a model, ayear, a number of doors, etc., before it can provide the requestedinformation. In addition, the request and the input data may need to bein a certain format or protocol for the information service 18 to acceptthe request.

The public API 20 is a software program or application that is either acomponent of, or in communication with, a web interface on a websitewhich receives requests and/or inputs from the user. The public API 20may also be a component of, or in communication with, an interface fordata retrieval software utilized by a group, company, or corporation,such as an insurance provider, wherein an insurance agent orrepresentative is trying to gather information regarding a customer'sinsurance policies. The public API 20 may be executed on the computingdevice 10 along with the resource discovery agent 16, or it may beexecuted on a different computing device.

The resource discovery agent 16 may include a core discovery agent 28, aresource locator 30, a resource definitions database 32, and a resourcefaçade 34. The core discovery agent 28 may receive messages from thepublic API 20 or itself, determine whether additional information isneeded and, if so, call the resource locator 30, call the resourcefaçade 34, or send a message to itself. If not, then the core discoveryagent 28 may transmit a resolved message to the public API 20.

The resource locator 30 may serve as an interface to the resourcedefinitions database 32—querying the database 32 for a definitionassociated with each requested datum and returning the definitioninformation to the core discovery agent 28. The resource definitionsdatabase 32 may include a definition for each of a plurality of datums(either requested and/or known). Each definition may include a list ofinformation services 18 which can provide values for the datums,locations of the information services 18, a list of the necessary inputdata, a format or protocol for the request, the input data, and theinformation returned, and so forth.

The resource façade 34 generally prepares and sends requests forinformation to the information services 18. The preparation may includetranslating, converting, or binding the input data, such as values andidentifiers of the values, into the proper protocol or format asrequired by the information service 18. The resource façade 34 may alsoreceive the information from the information service 18 and translate orconvert it into the protocol or format used within the resourcediscovery agent 16.

While executing or running the resource discovery agent 16, theprocessing element 26 may receive a first request data message using thecore discovery agent 28, wherein the request data message includes atleast one requested datum and at least one known datum. The reception ofa request data message may be part of a discovery process, which mayinvolve receiving a first request data message from the public API 20and then receiving a plurality of subsequent request data messages thatthe core discovery agent 28 sends to itself. The request data messagemay have a format, as shown in FIG. 4, that includes fields of “entity”,“attribute”, “transaction”, and “data”. The “entity”, “attribute”, and“transaction” fields may be described in FIG. 4. The “data” field mayinclude a plurality of subfields, some of which include requested datumsand some of which may include known datums, wherein a datum may be avariable such that the requested datum is a variable for which a valueis sought and the known datum is a variable for which a value is known.

Examples of requested datums in the insurance industry may include apremium for a house, a premium for an automobile, a total policypremium, etc. Examples of known datums may include a customer name, ahouse address, a vehicle make, a vehicle identification number (VIN),etc. The datums listed in the “originalRequestDatums” subfield may bethe requested datums for which the public API 20 is seeking values. Anyknown datums which were passed in with the request from the public API20 may be listed in the “originalPayloadDatums” subfield. All of therequested datums may be listed in the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield.All of the known datums may be listed in the “aggregatedDatums”subfield.

The other subfields may include “originRequestDataMessage” which mayhave a “present” attribute that, when it has a value of “true”,indicates that the current request data message is not the first, ororiginal, request data message. The “originMessage” subfield may be aBoolean type of variable that, when true, indicates that the currentrequest data message is the first, or original, request data message.The “supportMessage” subfield may be a Boolean type of variable that,when true, indicates that the current request data message is a support,or subsequent, request data message.

In various embodiments, the core discovery agent 28 may create temporarycopies of the contents of some of the subfields of the “data” field ofthe request data message. For example, the core discovery agent 28 maycreate a “remainingRequestDatums” list which is a copy of the contentsof the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield and an “aggregatedDatums” listwhich is a copy of the “aggregatedDatums” subfield so it can keep acurrent list of requested datums and known datums.

An example of the request data message from the public API 20 is shownin FIG. 5. The “entity” and “transaction” fields includecomputer-generated values. The “attribute” field includes the valuewhich identifies a request data message. The “originalRequestDatums”subfield identifies the original requested datums. In this case, valuesfor a risk total premium amount and an agreement total premium amountfor a particular customer are being requested. And the“remainingRequestDatums” subfield identifies the remaining requesteddatums, namely the risk total premium amount and the agreement totalpremium amount.

The core discovery agent 28 may determine if there are still requesteddatums by checking the “remainingRequestDatums” list. There shouldalways be remaining requested datums in the original data requestmessage from the public API 20, but there may also be remainingrequested datums in subsequent data request messages that the corediscovery agent 28 sends to itself. If there are requested datums in the“remainingRequestDatums” list, then the core discovery agent 28 may callthe resource locator 30 and request a definition for the requesteddatums, including a location for one or more information services 18which can provide values for the requested datums. The call to theresource locator 30 may include at least one requested datum. Theresource locator 30 may query the resource definitions database 32 todetermine if it includes a definition for the requested datums. If theresource definitions database 32 includes an entry for the requesteddatums, then the resource locator 30 may return, at least, the locationof the information service 18 which can provide values for the requesteddatums, a list of input datums that are needed by the informationservice 18 in order to provide the requested datums, and a protocol orformat of the input datums and values required by the informationservice 18. In some situations, the resource definitions database 32 mayinclude a plurality of information services 18 that can provide valuesfor the requested datums. Each definition may also include an expenseeither charged by the information service 18 or otherwise associatedwith requesting information from the information service 18. In suchsituations, the resource locator 30 may also return each informationservice 18 along with the associated expense.

The core discovery agent 28 may receive the information from theresource locator 30 and may add the input datums to the“remainingRequestDatums” list. The core discovery agent 28 may alsocompare the input datums with the known datums in the “aggregatedDatums”list. If each of the input datums matches one of the known datums in the“aggregatedDatums” list, then the core discovery agent 28 may call theresource façade 34 to prepare and send a request for information fromthe information services 18 identified by the resource definitionsdatabase 32. The call may include the known datums, and their values,from the “aggregatedDatums” list which matched the input datums requiredby the information service 18 along with the information service 18location and the protocol requirements. The resource façade 34 mayprepare the request by translating, converting, or binding the requesteddatums, the known datums, and their values into the proper protocol. Theresource façade 34 may then transmit the request to the informationservice 18.

If there are multiple information services 18 providing the requesteddatums, then the core discovery agent 28 may select the informationservice 18 with the lowest expense to receive the request.Alternatively, the core discovery agent 28 may apply certain rules orselect the information services 18 that are known to be more reliable.

The information service 18 may receive the request and process it. Theinformation service 18 may perform searching, sorting, computing, etc.in order to acquire the values for the requested datums. The informationservice 18 may then transmit the requested datums and their values backto the resource façade 34, which may translate or convert the receiveddatums and values into a protocol used within the resource discoveryagent 16. The resource façade 34 may return the requested datums andtheir values to the core discovery agent 28, which may remove thosedatums from the “remainingRequestDatums” list and add the datums andvalues to the “aggregatedDatums” list. In some cases, the informationservice 18 may return more datums and values than were requested. Thoseadditional datums and values are added to the “aggregatedDatums” list.The core discovery agent 28 may recheck the contents of the“remainingRequestDatums” list.

If there are no more requested datums in the “remainingRequestDatums”list, then the core discovery agent 28 may generate a resolved datamessage. A format for the resolved data message is shown in FIG. 6 andmay include the same fields as the request data message with the primarydifferences being the value of the “attribute” field and the subfieldsof the “data” field. The “attribute” field may have a value ofhpm.resolved/message. The subfields may include a “requestDataMessage”comprising the original request data message and all subsequent datamessages related to the original requested datums and a “resolvedData”comprising the originally requested datums and their discovered values,which may be retrieved from the “aggregatedDatums” list. An example ofthe resolved data message is shown in FIG. 7, wherein values for theoriginally requested agreement total premium amount and risk totalpremium amount datums are listed in the “aggregatedDatums” subfield thatwas part of the original data request message and listed in the“resolvedData” subfield of the current message. Additional information,such as an “entity”, a “transaction”, and an “operation” are alsoincluded for each datum for which a value was found. The resolved datamessage may be transmitted from the core discovery agent 28 to thepublic API 20 in order to provide the public API 20 with the informationit requested.

If at least some of the input datums, that are received from theresource locator 30 and required by the information service 18 toprovide requested datums, are not present in the “aggregatedDatums”list, then this is an indication that intermediate requested datums areneeded in order to obtain values for the original requested datums. Inthis case, the core discovery agent 28 may generate another request datamessage that includes the contents of the first request data message aswell as all of the fields for the request data message as shown in FIG.4. The core discovery agent 28 may copy the contents of the“remainingRequestDatums” list into the “remainingRequestDatums” subfieldand the contents of the “aggregatedDatums” list into the“aggregatedDatums” subfield. For the “originRequestDataMessage”subfield, the core discovery agent 28 may set the value of the “present”attribute to “true”. The core discovery agent 28 may also set the valueof the “originMessage” subfield to “false” and the value of the“supportMessage” subfield to “true”. The core discovery agent 28 maytransmit this second request data message to itself. Thus, the corediscovery agent 28 may receive the second request data message and mayproceed to inspect the message and act according to the contents of themessage as discussed above.

Typically, the core discovery agent 28 inspects the“remainingRequestDatums” subfield to determine which requested datums donot have values yet and calls the resource locator 30 to return aninformation service 18 that can provide the values. Assuming there is anappropriate definition for the requested datums, the core discoveryagent 28 may call the resource façade 34 to transmit a third informationservice message to retrieve values for the intermediate requesteddatums. The resource façade 34 may receive a fourth information servicemessage from the information service 18 with the values of theintermediate requested datums. Once the intermediate requested datumsand their values are returned to the core discovery agent 28, it maygenerate a discovery resolution data message. A format for the discoveryresolution data message is shown in FIG. 8 and may include the samefields as the resolved data message with the primary difference beingthe value of the “attribute” field. The “attribute” field may have avalue of hpm.discovery resolution/message. The “requestDataMessage”subfield may include the previously received request data messages,wherein the most recent request data message may include the contents ofthe “aggregatedDatums” list and the “remainingRequestDatums” list. Thediscovery resolution data message signifies that the values for someintermediate datums have been found, but that values for the originallyrequested datums and possibly other intermediate datums have not beenfound. The core discovery agent 28 may transmit the discovery resolutiondata message back to itself. When the core discovery agent 28 receivesthe discovery resolution data message, it may continue the discoveryprocess as discussed above, wherein the core discovery agent 28 inspectsthe “remainingRequestDatums” subfield to determine which datums do nothave values yet and calls the resource locator 30 to return aninformation service 18 that can provide the values.

If the resource definitions database 32 does not include a definitionfor the requested datums, or if the information service 18 does notreturn the requested values for the datums, or if the informationservice 18 is unavailable, then either the resource locator 30 or theresource façade 34 may return an error message to the core discoveryagent 28. In such a case, the core discovery agent 28 may generate anunresolved data message. A format for the resolved data message is shownin FIG. 9 and may include the same fields as the resolved data messagewith the primary differences being the value of the “attribute” fieldand the subfields of the “data” field. The “attribute” field may have avalue of hpm.unresolved/message. The subfields may include a“requestDataMessage” comprising the original request data message andall subsequent data messages related to the original requested datumsand a “reason” providing a reason for why the requested datums could notbe acquired. The reason may include, for example, that the resourcediscovery agent 16 does not know where to find the requested datums, theinformation service 18 providing values for the datums was unavailable,etc. The public API 20 may receive the unresolved data message andresubmit the request with different or additional requested datums to befound. Additionally, or alternatively, the public API 20 may submit theunresolved data message to an information technology support team foranalysis.

Exemplary Computer-Implemented Method

FIGS. 10A and 10B depict a listing of steps of an exemplarycomputer-implemented method 100 for retrieving information from aplurality of information services 18 and providing it to a public API20. The steps may be performed in the order shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B,or they may be performed in a different order. Furthermore, some stepsmay be performed concurrently as opposed to sequentially. In addition,some steps may be optional. The steps of the computer-implemented method100 may be performed by the computing device 10 through the utilizationof processors, transceivers, hardware, software, firmware, orcombinations thereof.

Referring to step 101, a first request data message is received using acore discovery agent 28. The request data message may include at leastone requested datum and at least one known datum. The reception of arequest data message may be part of a discovery process, which mayinvolve receiving a first request data message from the public API 20and then receiving a plurality of subsequent request data messages thatthe core discovery agent 28 sends to itself. The request data messagemay have a format, as shown in FIG. 4, that includes fields of “entity”,“attribute”, “transaction”, and “data”. The “entity”, “attribute”, and“transaction” fields may be described in FIG. 4. The “data” field mayinclude a plurality of subfields, some of which include requested datumsand some of which may include known datums, wherein a datum may be avariable such that the requested datum is a variable for which a valueis sought and the known datum is a variable for which a value is known.

Examples of requested datums in the insurance industry may include apremium for a house, a premium for an automobile, a total policypremium, etc. Examples of known datums may include a customer name, ahouse address, a vehicle make, a vehicle identification number (VIN),etc. The datums listed in the “originalRequestDatums” subfield may bethe requested datums for which the public API 20 is seeking values. Anyknown datums which were passed in with the request from the public API20 may be listed in the “originalPayloadDatums” subfield. All of therequested datums may be listed in the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield.All of the known datums may be listed in the “aggregatedDatums”subfield.

The other subfields may include “originRequestDataMessage” which mayhave a “present” attribute that, when it has a value of “true”,indicates that the current request data message is not the first, ororiginal, request data message. The “originMessage” subfield may be aBoolean type of variable that, when true, indicates that the currentrequest data message is the first, or original, request data message.The “supportMessage” subfield may be a Boolean type of variable that,when true, indicates that the current request data message is a support,or subsequent, request data message.

In various embodiments, the core discovery agent 28 may create temporarycopies of the contents of some of the subfields of the “data” field ofthe request data message. For example, the core discovery agent 28 maycreate a “remainingRequestDatums” list which is a copy of the contentsof the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield and an “aggregatedDatums” listwhich is a copy of the “aggregatedDatums” subfield so it can keep acurrent list of those datums for which values still need to be found andthose datums for which values have already been found.

Referring to steps 102-104, call a resource locator 30 from the corediscovery agent 28 and request a definition for the requested datums,including a location for one or more information services 18 which canprovide values for the requested datums. The call to the resourcelocator 30 may include at least one requested datum. The resourcelocator 30 may query the resource definitions database 32 to determineif it includes a definition for the requested datums. If the resourcedefinitions database 32 includes an entry for the requested datums, thenthe resource locator 30 may return, at least, the location of theinformation service 18 which can provide values for the requesteddatums, a list of input datums that are needed by the informationservice 18 in order to provide the requested datums, and a protocol orformat of the input datums and values required by the informationservice 18. In some situations, the resource definitions database 32 mayinclude a plurality of information services 18 that can provide valuesfor the requested datums. Each definition may also include an expenseeither charged by the information service 18 or otherwise associatedwith requesting information from the information service 18. In suchsituations, the resource locator 30 may also return each informationservice 18 along with the associated expense.

Referring to steps 105-107, if each of the input datums matches one ofthe known datums in the “aggregatedDatums” list, then call the resourcefaçade 34 with the core discovery agent 28 to prepare and send a requestfor information from the information services 18 identified by theresource definitions database 32. The call may include the known datums,and their values, from the “aggregatedDatums” list which matched theinput datums required by the information service 18 along with theinformation service 18 location and the protocol requirements. Theresource façade 34 may prepare the request by translating, converting,or binding the requested datums, the known datums, and their values intothe proper protocol. The resource façade 34 may then transmit therequest to the information service 18. The information service 18 mayreceive the request and process it. The information service 18 mayperform searching, sorting, computing, etc. in order to acquire thevalues for the requested datums. The information service 18 may thentransmit the requested datums and their values back to the resourcefaçade 34.

If there are multiple information services 18 providing the requesteddatums, then the core discovery agent 28 may select the informationservice 18 with the lowest expense to receive the request.Alternatively, the core discovery agent 28 may apply certain rules orselect the information services 18 that are known to be more reliable.

Referring to steps 108-110, a second information service message isreceived from the information service 18 by the resource façade 34. Themessage may include the requested datums and their values with theresource façade 34. The resource façade 34 may translate or convert thereceived datums and values into a protocol used within the resourcediscovery agent 16. The resource façade 34 may return the requesteddatums and their values to the core discovery agent 28.

Referring to step 111, if there are no more requested datums, then aresolved data message is transmitted. The resolved data message mayinclude any request data messages, the known datums, and the originallyrequested datums with their values. The core discovery agent 28 mayremove the requested datums received from the resource locator 30 fromthe “remainingRequestDatums” list and add the datums and values to the“aggregatedDatums” list. In some cases, the information service 18 mayreturn more datums and values than were requested. Those additionaldatums and values are added to the “aggregatedDatums” list. The corediscovery agent 28 may recheck the contents of the“remainingRequestDatums” list. If there are no more datums in the“remainingRequestDatums” list, then the core discovery agent 28 maygenerate a resolved data message. A format for the resolved data messageis shown in FIG. 6 and may include the same fields as the request datamessage with the primary differences being the value of the “attribute”field and the subfields of the “data” field. The “attribute” field mayhave a value of hpm.resolved/message. The subfields may include a“requestDataMessage” comprising the original request data message andall subsequent data messages related to the original requested datumsand a “resolvedData” comprising the originally requested datums andtheir discovered values, which may be retrieved from the“aggregatedDatums” list. The resolved data message may be transmittedfrom the core discovery agent 28 to the public API 20 in order toprovide the public API 20 with the information it requested.

Referring to step 112, if the known datums do not match the inputdatums, then generate a second request data message that includes thecontents of the first request data message as well as all of the fieldsfor the request data message as shown in FIG. 4. This situationgenerally is an indication that intermediate requested datums are neededin order to obtain values for the original requested datums. The corediscovery agent 28 may copy the contents of the “remainingRequestDatums”list into the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield and the contents of the“aggregatedDatums” list into the “aggregatedDatums” subfield. For the“originRequestDataMessage” subfield, the core discovery agent 28 may setthe value of the “present” attribute to “true”. The core discovery agent28 may also set the value of the “originMessage” subfield to “false” andthe value of the “supportMessage” subfield to “true”. The core discoveryagent 28 may transmit this second request data message to itself. Thus,the core discovery agent 28 may receive the second request data messageand may proceed to inspect the message and act according to the contentsof the message as discussed above.

Referring to steps 113 and 114, the core discovery agent 28 inspects the“remainingRequestDatums” subfield to determine which requested datums donot have values yet and calls the resource locator 30 to return aninformation service 18 that can provide the values. Assuming there is anappropriate definition for the requested datums, the core discoveryagent 28 may call the resource façade 34 to transmit a third informationservice message to retrieve values for the intermediate requesteddatums. The resource façade 34 may receive a fourth information servicemessage from the information service 18 with the values of theintermediate requested datums. Once the intermediate requested datumsand their values are returned to the core discovery agent 28, it maygenerate a discovery resolution data message. A format for the discoveryresolution data message is shown in FIG. 8 and may include the samefields as the resolved data message with the primary difference beingthe value of the “attribute” field. The “attribute” field may have avalue of hpm.discovery resolution/message. The “requestDataMessage”subfield may include the previously received request data messages,wherein the most recent request data message may include the contents ofthe “aggregatedDatums” list and the “remainingRequestDatums” list. Thediscovery resolution data message signifies that the values for someintermediate datums have been found, but that values for the originallyrequested datums and possibly other intermediate datums have not beenfound. The core discovery agent 28 may transmit the discovery resolutiondata message back to itself. When the core discovery agent 28 receivesthe discovery resolution data message, it may continue the discoveryprocess as discussed above, wherein the core discovery agent 28 inspectsthe “remainingRequestDatums” subfield to determine which datums do nothave values yet and calls the resource locator 30 to return aninformation service 18 that can provide the values.

Referring to step 115, if the resource definition database 32 does notinclude the definition for the requested datums, or if the secondinformation service message is not received from the information serviceor if the information service reports an error, then transmit anunresolved data message. The resource locator 30 or the resource façade34 may return an error message to the core discovery agent 28. In such acase, the core discovery agent 28 may generate an unresolved datamessage. A format for the resolved data message is shown in FIG. 9 andmay include the same fields as the resolved data message with theprimary differences being the value of the “attribute” field and thesubfields of the “data” field. The “attribute” field may have a value ofhpm.unresolved/message. The subfields may include a “requestDataMessage”comprising the original request data message and all subsequent datamessages related to the original requested datums and a “reason”providing a reason for why the requested datums could not be acquired.The reason may include, for example, that the resource discovery agent16 does not know where to find the requested datums, the informationservice 18 providing the datums was unavailable, etc. The public API 20may receive the unresolved data message and resubmit the request withdifferent or additional datums to be found. Additionally, oralternatively, the public API 20 may submit the unresolved data messageto an information technology support team for analysis.

First Exemplary Software Application

FIG. 2 illustrates at least a portion of the components of an exemplaryembodiment of the resource discovery agent 16 software application. Theresource discovery agent 16 may broadly comprise the core discoveryagent 28, the resource locator 30, the resource definitions database 32,and the resource façade 34. The resource discovery agent 16 may beexecuted on the computing device 10 and may retrieve information fromthe information services 18 and provide it to the public API 20. Theresource discovery agent 16 may be utilized in a web environment, asseen in FIG. 1 wherein one or more users, each using an electronicdevice 14, are trying to access information from a website through thecommunication network 12. For example, a user may try to get an estimatefor a premium on home insurance or auto insurance from an insuranceprovider website. As another example, an insurance agent orrepresentative may also try to retrieve a premium estimate for one ofhis customers.

The core discovery agent 28 may receive messages from the public API 20or itself, determine whether additional information is needed and, ifso, call the resource locator 30, call the resource façade 34, or send amessage to itself. If not, then the core discovery agent 28 may transmita resolved message to the public API 20.

The resource locator 30 may serve as an interface to the resourcedefinitions database 32—querying the database 32 for a definitionassociated with each requested datum and returning the definitioninformation to the core discovery agent 28. The resource definitionsdatabase 32 may include a definition for each of a plurality of datums(either requested and/or known). Each definition may include a list ofinformation services 18 which can provide values for the datums,locations of the information services 18, a list of the necessary inputdata, a format or protocol for the request, the input data, and theinformation returned, and so forth.

The resource façade 34 generally prepares and sends requests forinformation, or values for requested datums, to the information services18. The preparation may include translating, converting, or binding theinput data, such as values and identifiers of the values, into theproper protocol or format as required by the information service 18. Theresource façade 34 may also receive the information from the informationservice 18 and translate or convert it into the protocol or format usedwithin the resource discovery agent 16.

In more detail, the core discovery agent 28 may receive a first requestdata message, wherein the request data message includes at least onerequested datum and at least one known datum. The reception of a requestdata message may be part of a discovery process, which may involvereceiving a first request data message from the public API 20 and thenreceiving a plurality of subsequent request data messages that the corediscovery agent 28 sends to itself. The request data message may have aformat, as shown in FIG. 4, that includes fields of “entity”,“attribute”, “transaction”, and “data”. The “entity”, “attribute”, and“transaction” fields may be described in FIG. 4. The “data” field mayinclude a plurality of subfields, some of which include requested datumsand some of which may include known datums, wherein a datum may be avariable such that the requested datum is a variable for which a valueis sought and the known datum is a variable for which a value is known.

Examples of requested datums in the insurance industry may include apremium for a house, a premium for an automobile, a total policypremium, etc. Examples of known datums may include a customer name, ahouse address, a vehicle make, a vehicle identification number (VIN),etc. The datums listed in the “originalRequestDatums” subfield may bethe requested datums for which the public API 20 is seeking values. Anyknown datums which were passed in with the request from the public API20 may be listed in the “originalPayloadDatums” subfield. All of therequested datums may be listed in the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield.All of the known datums may be listed in the “aggregatedDatums”subfield.

The other subfields may include “originRequestDataMessage” which mayhave a “present” attribute that, when it has a value of “true”,indicates that the current request data message is not the first, ororiginal, request data message. The “originMessage” subfield may be aBoolean type of variable that, when true, indicates that the currentrequest data message is the first, or original, request data message.The “supportMessage” subfield may be a Boolean type of variable that,when true, indicates that the current request data message is a support,or subsequent, request data message.

In various embodiments, the core discovery agent 28 may create temporarycopies of the contents of some of the subfields of the “data” field ofthe request data message. For example, the core discovery agent 28 maycreate a “remainingRequestDatums” list which is a copy of the contentsof the “remainingRequestDatums” subfield and an “aggregatedDatums” listwhich is a copy of the “aggregatedDatums” subfield so it can keep acurrent list of requested datums and known datums.

An example of the request data message from the public API 20 is shownin FIG. 5. The “entity” and “transaction” fields includecomputer-generated values. The “attribute” field includes the valuewhich identifies a request data message. The “originalRequestDatums”subfield identifies the original requested datums. In this case, valuesfor a risk total premium amount and an agreement total premium amountfor a particular customer are being requested. And the“remainingRequestDatums” subfield identifies the remaining requesteddatums, namely the risk total premium amount and the agreement totalpremium amount.

The core discovery agent 28 may determine if there are still requesteddatums by checking the “remainingRequestDatums” list. There shouldalways be remaining requested datums in the original data requestmessage from the public API 20, but there may also be remainingrequested datums in subsequent data request messages that the corediscovery agent 28 sends to itself. If there are requested datums in the“remainingRequestDatums” list, then the core discovery agent 28 may callthe resource locator 30 and request a definition for the requesteddatums, including a location for one or more information services 18which can provide values for the requested datums. The call to theresource locator 30 may include at least one requested datum. Theresource locator 30 may query the resource definitions database 32 todetermine if it includes a definition for the requested datums. If theresource definitions database 32 includes an entry for the requesteddatums, then the resource locator 30 may return, at least, the locationof the information service 18 which can provide values for the requesteddatums, a list of input datums that are needed by the informationservice 18 in order to provide the requested datums, and a protocol orformat of the input datums and values required by the informationservice 18. In some situations, the resource definitions database 32 mayinclude a plurality of information services 18 that can provide valuesfor the requested datums. Each definition may also include an expenseeither charged by the information service 18 or otherwise associatedwith requesting information from the information service 18. In suchsituations, the resource locator 30 may also return each informationservice 18 along with the associated expense.

The core discovery agent 28 may receive the information from theresource locator 30 and may add the input datums to the“remainingRequestDatums” list. The core discovery agent 28 may alsocompare the input datums with the known datums in the “aggregatedDatums”list. If each of the input datums matches one of the known datums in the“aggregatedDatums” list, then the core discovery agent 28 may call theresource façade 34 to prepare and send a request for information fromthe information services 18 identified by the resource definitionsdatabase 32. The call may include the known datums, and their values,from the “aggregatedDatums” list which matched the input datums requiredby the information service 18 along with the information service 18location and the protocol requirements. The resource façade 34 mayprepare the request by translating, converting, or binding the requesteddatums, the known datums, and their values into the proper protocol. Theresource façade 34 may then transmit the request to the informationservice 18.

If there are multiple information services 18 providing the requesteddatums, then the core discovery agent 28 may select the informationservice 18 with the lowest expense to receive the request.Alternatively, the core discovery agent 28 may apply certain rules orselect the information services 18 that are known to be more reliable.

The information service 18 may receive the request and process it. Theinformation service 18 may perform searching, sorting, computing, etc.in order to acquire the values for the requested datums. The informationservice 18 may then transmit the requested datums and their values backto the resource façade 34, which may translate or convert the receiveddatums and values into a protocol used within the resource discoveryagent 16. The resource façade 34 may return the requested datums andtheir values to the core discovery agent 28, which may remove thosedatums from the “remainingRequestDatums” list and add the datums andvalues to the “aggregatedDatums” list. In some cases, the informationservice 18 may return more datums and values than were requested. Thoseadditional datums and values are added to the “aggregatedDatums” list.The core discovery agent 28 may recheck the contents of the“remainingRequestDatums” list.

If there are no more requested datums in the “remainingRequestDatums”list, then the core discovery agent 28 may generate a resolved datamessage. A format for the resolved data message is shown in FIG. 6 andmay include the same fields as the request data message with the primarydifferences being the value of the “attribute” field and the subfieldsof the “data” field. The “attribute” field may have a value ofhpm.resolved/message. The subfields may include a “requestDataMessage”comprising the original request data message and all subsequent datamessages related to the original requested datums and a “resolvedData”comprising the originally requested datums and their discovered values,which may be retrieved from the “aggregatedDatums” list. An example ofthe resolved data message is shown in FIG. 7, wherein values for theoriginally requested agreement total premium amount and risk totalpremium amount datums are listed in the “aggregatedDatums” subfield thatwas part of the original data request message and listed in the“resolvedData” subfield of the current message. Additional information,such as an “entity”, a “transaction”, and an “operation” are alsoincluded for each datum for which a value was found. The resolved datamessage may be transmitted from the core discovery agent 28 to thepublic API 20 in order to provide the public API 20 with the informationit requested.

If at least some of the input datums, that are received from theresource locator 30 and required by the information service 18 toprovide requested datums, are not present in the “aggregatedDatums”list, then this is an indication that intermediate requested datums areneeded in order to obtain values for the original requested datums. Inthis case, the core discovery agent 28 may generate another request datamessage that includes the contents of the first request data message aswell as all of the fields for the request data message as shown in FIG.4. The core discovery agent 28 may copy the contents of the“remainingRequestDatums” list into the “remainingRequestDatums” subfieldand the contents of the “aggregatedDatums” list into the“aggregatedDatums” subfield. For the “originRequestDataMessage”subfield, the core discovery agent 28 may set the value of the “present”attribute to “true”. The core discovery agent 28 may also set the valueof the “originMessage” subfield to “false” and the value of the“supportMessage” subfield to “true”. The core discovery agent 28 maytransmit this second request data message to itself. Thus, the corediscovery agent 28 may receive the second request data message and mayproceed to inspect the message and act according to the contents of themessage as discussed above.

Typically, the core discovery agent 28 inspects the“remainingRequestDatums” subfield to determine which requested datums donot have values yet and calls the resource locator 30 to return aninformation service 18 that can provide the values. Assuming there is anappropriate definition for the requested datums, the core discoveryagent 28 may call the resource façade 34 to transmit a third informationservice message to retrieve values for the intermediate requesteddatums. The resource façade 34 may receive a fourth information servicemessage from the information service 18 with the values of theintermediate requested datums. Once the intermediate requested datumsand their values are returned to the core discovery agent 28, it maygenerate a discovery resolution data message. A format for the discoveryresolution data message is shown in FIG. 8 and may include the samefields as the resolved data message with the primary difference beingthe value of the “attribute” field. The “attribute” field may have avalue of hpm.discovery resolution/message. The “requestDataMessage”subfield may include the previously received request data messages,wherein the most recent request data message may include the contents ofthe “aggregatedDatums” list and the “remainingRequestDatums” list. Thediscovery resolution data message signifies that the values for someintermediate datums have been found, but that values for the originallyrequested datums and possibly other intermediate datums have not beenfound. The core discovery agent 28 may transmit the discovery resolutiondata message back to itself. When the core discovery agent 28 receivesthe discovery resolution data message, it may continue the discoveryprocess as discussed above, wherein the core discovery agent 28 inspectsthe “remainingRequestDatums” subfield to determine which datums do nothave values yet and calls the resource locator 30 to return aninformation service 18 that can provide the values.

If the resource definitions database 32 does not include a definitionfor the requested datums, or if the information service 18 does notreturn the requested values for the datums, or if the informationservice 18 is unavailable, then either the resource locator 30 or theresource façade 34 may return an error message to the core discoveryagent 28. In such a case, the core discovery agent 28 may generate anunresolved data message. A format for the resolved data message is shownin FIG. 9 and may include the same fields as the resolved data messagewith the primary differences being the value of the “attribute” fieldand the subfields of the “data” field. The “attribute” field may have avalue of hpm.unresolved/message. The subfields may include a“requestDataMessage” comprising the original request data message andall subsequent data messages related to the original requested datumsand a “reason” providing a reason for why the requested datums could notbe acquired. The reason may include, for example, that the resourcediscovery agent 16 does not know where to find the requested datums, theinformation service 18 providing values for the datums was unavailable,etc. The public API 20 may receive the unresolved data message andresubmit the request with different or additional requested datums to befound. Additionally, or alternatively, the public API 20 may submit theunresolved data message to an information technology support team foranalysis.

Second Exemplary Software Application

FIGS. 12-17 illustrate at least a portion of the components of anotherexemplary embodiment of the resource discovery agent 200, which may alsobe executed by the processing element 26 of the computing device 10. Theresource discovery agent 200 may allow for information needed by anapplication 202 to be discovered dynamically at run time of theapplication 202. The information may take the form of a plurality ofdatums, for which values are sought. The application 202 may be similarto the public API 20 discussed above. The resource discovery agent 200may utilize a plurality of processes 204, a plurality of rules 206, anda plurality of interfaces 208 in order to provide requested informationto the application 202.

The application 202 may implement a procedure, such as a business flow,which seeks to provide information to a user, who is a customer/clientor a potential customer/client, regarding services from a financialand/or insurance provider, among others. For instance, the user may tryto get an estimate for a premium on home insurance or auto insurance fora new or existing policy from an insurance provider website. In anotherinstance, the user may be trying to apply for a credit card or a loanfrom a financial institution.

Each process 204 may perform a particular function as part of theprocedure implemented by the application 202. Thus, one application 202may call on, or depend upon, one or more processes 204. In addition, oneprocess 204 may be called upon by one or more applications 202. Eachprocess 204 may acquire or retrieve at least a portion of values ofdatums required by the application 202. In addition, or instead, eachprocess 204 may acquire values of intermediate datums that are requiredto retrieve the values of datums provided to the application 202. Valuesof intermediate datums may also be provided by the user. In continuingone of the examples above, if the user is trying get an estimate for apremium on home insurance, then he may provide his name and address. Anexemplary process may determine whether the user is an existing customeror a potential new customer. In this case, the user provided the valuesof some intermediate datums (user name and address) while the process204 acquired the values of other intermediate datums (existing customeror potential new customer). One or more other processes 204 may performthe other functions necessary to implement the procedure of theapplication 202. Thus, other processes 204 may retrieve informationabout the house to be insured, such as square footage, number ofstories, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the like, which may beutilized to determine or calculate the home insurance premium.

Each process 204 may apply one or more rules 206, such as businessrules, that require at least one condition to be met. As an example, onerule 206 may verify that the user is at least a certain age to apply fora credit card. Another rule may verify that an address provided by theuser for a homeowner's policy is valid. Each rule 206 may require valuesfor one or more datums. Examples of datums may include the user's name,the user's date of birth, the user's address, etc., wherein the datummay have an alphanumeric value. The datums may also include an insurancepremium, amounts of coverage for various policies, a credit limit, aloan amount, and the like. The datums may also have a Boolean or binaryvalue, such as whether the user's address is valid or invalid.

The value for each datum may be provided by one or more interfaces 208,which contact various services that supply values for requested datums,request the datum values, and receive the datum values. In some cases,the values for datums may be stored in one or more databases in thepossession of the insurance provider or financial institution. Thus, theinterface 208 may access the database, request and then receive valuesfor the datums. Or, the values for datums may be stored or retained insources outside the provider or institution that are available throughthe Internet. In this instance, the interface 208 may send a requestthrough the Internet to a web site to retrieve values for the datums.Each interface 208 may be configured to retrieve the values for one ormore datums. Typically, the interface 208 needs the value of one or moredatums as inputs in order to retrieve requested values. For example, theuser's address may be needed to retrieve numerous pieces of information,or datum values, pertaining a house and property at the address such asan age of the house, a square footage of the house, a square footage oracreage of the property, etc. In some cases, the values of intermediatedatums needed as inputs for interfaces 208 to retrieve values of otherdatums may be provided by the user. In other cases, the values ofintermediate datums needed as inputs for interfaces 208 to retrievevalues of other datums may be retrieved using other interfaces 208.

The interfaces 208 are typically utilized dynamically since it may notbe known which datums have values when the application 202 is initiallyexecuted. Thus, when a first interface 208 is to be utilized to retrievea value for a first datum using a value for a second datum as an inputand the value of the second datum is not known, then a second interface208 may be utilized to retrieve the value of the second datum using avalue of a third datum as input. If the value of the third datum is notknown, then a third interface 208 may be utilized to retrieve thatvalue. The second and third datums may be considered intermediatedatums. Additional interfaces 208 may be utilized dynamically asrequired until a value of a datum needed as input for a subsequentlyutilized interface 208 is known.

The resource discovery agent 200 may comprise a database or definitionsrepository that includes parameters associated with each application202, such as a list of processes 204 called by the application 202, alist of rules 206 applied by each process 204, and a list of whichinterfaces 208 providing values for datums and those datums whose valuesare needed as inputs for the interfaces 208.

FIG. 12 shows the components of the resource discovery agent 200 intabular or spreadsheet form. The table comprises a plurality of columnsand a plurality of rows—including two header rows which identifyapplications 202, processes 204, rules 206, and interfaces 208. Thetable illustrates the process of the acquisition of data required for aparticular application 202. The table may include a first column todisplay the name (Application #) of the current application 202. In asecond column, the datums (Data #) in possession, or for which valueshave been received or retrieved, may be listed. Typically, theapplication 202 may have already received at least one datum value fromthe user, such as a name, date of birth, etc., when the application 202utilizes the resource discovery agent 200 to acquire the rest of theinformation needed. The table may include a third column to display thename (Process #) of the processes 204 that are executed for theapplication 202. The table may include a fourth column to display thename (Rule #) of the rules 206 that are applied for each process 204.The table may include a fifth column to display the datums whose valuesare needed for each rule 206. The table may include a sixth column todisplay the name (Interface #) of the interfaces 208 that provide datumvalues for each rule 206. The table may include a seventh column todisplay the datums whose values are needed as inputs for the interface208 to retrieve the value of the requested datum. When the value of thedatum needed as input to the first interface 208 (in column 6) is notknown, there may be additional columns in the table that list additionalinterfaces 208 which will dynamically provide the values of unknowndatums.

FIGS. 13-17 illustrate an example of the resource discovery agent 200being used to retrieve information for Application1. FIG. 13 includes atable that illustrates the beginning of the process, wherein the userhas accessed a website from an insurance provider and/or financialinstitution to get a premium quote, apply for a credit card or loan,etc. The user may be required to supply some information to start theprocedure. In this example, the user has provided Data4 and Data9(listed in the “Data Possessed” column), which may represent the user'sname and address, the user's name and date of birth, or the like. Thetable of FIG. 13 further lists the following processes 204, rules 206,and interfaces 208 that are utilized in this example of the resourcediscovery agent 200. Application1 calls on Process1 and Process2.Process1 includes Rule1, Rule2, and Rule3. Rule1 requires Data1, Data2,and Data3. Data1 may be provided by Interface1 or Interface9. Interface9requires Data13 as input. Data2 may be provided by Interface2, whichrequires Data10 as input. Data3 may be provided by Interface3 orInterface4. Interface3 requires Data4 as input, while Interface4requires Data11 as input. Rule2 requires Data4, Data5, and Data2. Data4may be provided by Interface5. Data5 may be provided by Interface2,Interface6, or Interface7. Interface2 requires Data10 as input, whileInterface6 requires Data9 as input. Data2 may be provided by Interface2,which requires Data10 as input. Rule3 requires Data6, which may beprovided by Interface6 or Interface8. Interface6 requires Data9 asinput. Process2 includes Rule4 and Rule5. Rule4 requires Data1 which maybe provided by Interface1 or Interface9. Interface9 requires Data13 asinput. Rule5 requires Data7 and Data8. Data7 may be provided byInterface10, which requires Data14 as input. Data8 may be provided byInterface2 or Interface7. Interface2 requires Data10 as input. Thedatums needed as inputs for Interfaces 1, 5, 7, and 8 may be unknown ormay be filled in at a later time. The table of FIG. 13 indicates that,through the processes 204 called and the rules 206 that are applied,datums Data1 through Data8 are needed for Application1 to be complete.

The table of FIG. 14 illustrates the status of the retrieval ofinformation for Application1 at a point in time after the table of FIG.13. As a result of Data4 and Data9 being provided, Data3 was retrievedby Interface3 using Data4 as input. Data5 was retrieved by Interface6using Data9 as input. And, Data6 was retrieved by Interface6 using Data9as input. Thus, Data3, Data5, and Data6 are listed in the “DataPossessed” column. The table of FIG. 14 also includes additional columnsof interfaces 208 that may be dynamically utilized if the value of thedatum needed as input for the first interface 208 is not known. Thetable of FIG. 14 also illustrates at least portion of a data chain forthose interfaces 208 for which the value of the datum needed as input isnot known. The data chain may include a plurality of datums whose valuesmust be retrieved, and the interfaces 208 that provide them, in sequencebefore the value for a given datum is retrieved, as part of the dynamicutilization of the interfaces 208. For example, Data2 may be retrievedthrough Interface2 using Data10 as input. But, if Data10 is not known,then its value may be retrieved through Interface11 using Data12 asinput. And, Data12 may be retrieved through Interface9. The table ofFIG. 14 also shows the data chain for providing a value of Data8.

The table of FIG. 15 illustrates the status of the retrieval ofinformation for Application 1 at a point in time after the table of FIG.14 and shows that some of the datum values needed as inputs to theinterfaces 208 to provide values of the datums needed for each rule 206were not initially available. Thus, at least the second level of datumsin the data chain have to be retrieved to obtain the values of thedatums needed for some rules 206. For example, a value for Data13 may beneeded by Interface9 to retrieve a value for Data1. Since Data13 is notinitially available, its value may be retrieved through Interface6 usingthe value of Data9 as an input. The value of Data9 was initiallyprovided, so the value of Data1 may be obtained after the value ofData13 is obtained. Also, the value of Data12 may have been retrieved,thus providing the values of Data10, Data5, and Data8.

The table of FIG. 16 illustrates the status of the retrieval ofinformation for Application1 at a point in time after the table of FIG.15 and shows that in the second column, the resource discovery agent 200is now in possession of Data1, Data12, Data10, Data2, Data13, and Data8.Thus, all of the datums, Data1 through Data6 and Data8, required byApplication1, with the exception of Data7, have been retrieved. Thetable of FIG. 16 indicates that Data7 may be provided by Interface10with a value of Data14 as an input. But, Data14 was not providedinitially, so the table further indicates that Data14 may be provided byInterface5 with the value of Data8 as an input. Since Data8 is known atthis point, Data14 and, in turn, Data7 may be retrieved.

The table of FIG. 17 illustrates the status of the retrieval ofinformation for Application1 at a point in time after the table of FIG.16 and shows that in the second column, the resource discovery agent 200is now in possession of all of the data required by Application1.

Exemplary Computer-Implemented Method for Retrieving Information from aPlurality of Information Services and Providing it to a PublicApplication Programming Interface (API)

In a first aspect, a computer-implemented method for retrievinginformation from a plurality of information services and providing it toa public application programming interface (API) may be provided. Themethod may include, via one or more processors and/or transceivers: (1)receiving a first request data message using a core discovery agent, therequest data message including at least one requested datum, for which avalue is sought, and at least one known datum, for which a value isknown; (2) calling a resource locator to request a location of aninformation service that provides a value for the requested datum; (3)calling a resource definitions database to find a definition associatedwith the requested datum; (4) returning the location of the informationservice and at least one input datum if the resource definitionsdatabase includes the definition associated with the requested datum;(5) calling a resource façade to contact the information service if theinput datum matches the known datum; (6) transmitting a firstinformation service message including the requested datum and the knowndatum from the resource façade to the information service; (7) receivinga second information service message from the information serviceincluding a value for the requested datum; (8) returning the requesteddatum and its value from the resource façade to the core discoveryagent; and/or (9) transmitting a resolved data message including therequested datum and its value from the core discovery agent to thepublic API. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternativeactions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the method may include, via one or more processors:transmitting an unresolved data message from the core discovery agent tothe public API if the resource definitions database does not include adefinition for the requested datum, wherein the unresolved data messageincludes a reason why a value could not be found for the requesteddatum; and transmitting an unresolved data message from the corediscovery agent to the public API if the resource façade cannot contactthe information service or if the information service does not return avalue for the requested datum, wherein the unresolved data messageincludes a reason why a value could not be found for the requesteddatum; transmitting a second request data message from the corediscovery agent to itself if the input datum does not match the knowndatum, the second request data message including the original requesteddatum, the known datum, and the input datum as a new requested datum. Inaddition the method may include receiving the second request datamessage; calling the resource locator to request the location of theinformation service that provides a value for the new requested datum;calling the resource definitions database to find a definitionassociated with the new requested datum; returning the location of theinformation service; calling a resource façade to contact theinformation service; transmitting a third information service messageincluding the new requested datum from the resource façade to theinformation service; receiving a fourth information service message fromthe information service including a value for the new requested datum;returning the new requested datum and its value from the resource façadeto the core discovery agent; and/or transmitting a discovery resolutiondata message including the new requested datum and its value from thecore discovery agent to itself. Furthermore, the method may includetranslating the requested datum and the known datum into a protocol usedby the information service before transmitting the first informationservice message from the resource façade and translating the requesteddatum and its value from the second information service message into aprotocol used by the core discovery agent before returning the requesteddatum and its value to the core discovery agent.

Exemplary Computing Device for Retrieving Information from a Pluralityof Information Services and Providing it to a Public ApplicationProgramming Interface (API)

In another aspect, a computing device for retrieving information from aplurality of information services and providing it to a publicapplication programming interface (API) may be provided. The computingdevice may include a communication element, a memory element, and aprocessing element. The communication element may be configured toprovide electronic communication with a communication network. Theprocessing element may be electronically coupled to the memory element.The processing element may be configured to receive a first request datamessage using a core discovery agent, the request data message includingat least one requested datum, for which a value is sought, and at leastone known datum, for which a value is known; call a resource locator torequest a location of an information service that provides a value forthe requested datum; call a resource definitions database to find adefinition associated with the requested datum; return the location ofthe information service and at least one input datum if the resourcedefinitions database includes the definition associated with therequested datum; call a resource façade to contact the informationservice if the input datum matches the known datum; transmit a firstinformation service message including the requested datum and the knowndatum from the resource façade to the information service; receive asecond information service message from the information serviceincluding a value for the requested datum; return the requested datumand its value from the resource façade to the core discovery agent;and/or transmit a resolved data message including the requested datumand its value from the core discovery agent to the public API. Thecomputing device may include additional, fewer, or alternate componentsand/or functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the processing element may be further configured to:transmit an unresolved data message from the core discovery agent to thepublic API if the resource definitions database does not include adefinition for the requested datum, wherein the unresolved data messageincludes a reason why a value could not be found for the requesteddatum; transmit an unresolved data message from the core discovery agentto the public API if the resource façade cannot contact the informationservice or if the information service does not return a value for therequested datum, wherein the unresolved data message includes a reasonwhy a value could not be found for the requested datum; and transmit asecond request data message from the core discovery agent to itself ifthe input datum does not match the known datum, the second request datamessage including the original requested datum, the known datum, and theinput datum as a new requested datum. In addition the processing elementmay be configured to receive the second request data message; call theresource locator to request the location of the information service thatprovides a value for the new requested datum; call the resourcedefinitions database to find a definition associated with the newrequested datum; return the location of the information service; call aresource façade to contact the information service; transmit a thirdinformation service message including the new requested datum from theresource façade to the information service; receive a fourth informationservice message from the information service including a value for thenew requested datum; return the new requested datum and its value fromthe resource façade to the core discovery agent; and/or transmit adiscovery resolution data message including the new requested datum andits value from the core discovery agent to itself. Furthermore, theprocessing element may be configured to translate the requested datumand the known datum into a protocol used by the information servicebefore transmitting the first information service message from theresource façade and translate the requested datum and its value from thesecond information service message into a protocol used by the corediscovery agent before returning the requested datum and its value tothe core discovery agent.

Exemplary Software Application for Retrieving Information from aPlurality of Information Services and Providing it to a PublicApplication Programming Interface (API)

In yet another aspect, a software application for retrieving informationfrom a plurality of information services and providing it to a publicapplication programming interface (API) may be provided. The softwareapplication may comprise a core discovery agent, a resource locator, aresource definitions database, and/or a resource façade. The corediscovery agent may be configured to receive messages from the publicAPI or from itself, the messages including at least one requested datumand at least one known datum. The core discovery agent may be furtherconfigured to determine whether additional information is needed and, ifso, then call another software application component, or send a requestdata message to itself, and if not, then transmit a resolved datamessage to the public API. The resource locator may be configured toreceive the call from the core discovery agent, to send a query for adefinition associated with the requested datum, and to return thedefinition information to the core discovery agent. The resourcedefinitions database may include a definition for each of a plurality ofrequested datums and may be configured to receive the query from theresource locator and to provide requested datum information. Theresource façade may be configured to send a request for a value for therequested datum to an information service, to receive the requesteddatum and its value from the information service, and to return therequested datum and its value to the core discovery agent. The softwareapplication may include additional, less, or alternate functionality,including that discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the resource façade may be further configured to translatethe requested datum and any other datums and their values into aprotocol used by the information service before sending the request tothe information service. The resource façade may be further configuredto translate the requested datum and its value into a protocol used bythe core discovery agent after receiving the requested datum from theinformation service. The definition information may include at least oneinput datum required by the information service, and the core discoveryagent may be further configured to send the request data message toitself if the input datum does not match the known datum and to call theresource façade if the input datum matches the known datum. The corediscovery agent may be further configured to transmit an unresolved datamessage to the public API if the resource façade does not receive therequested datum and its value from the information service. The corediscovery agent may be further configured to transmit an unresolved datamessage to the public API if the resource definitions database does notinclude the definition for the requested datum. The core discovery agentmay be further configured to send a discovery resolution message toitself if the requested datum and its value received from theinformation service is not an original requested datum. The componentsmay be computer-readable or computer-executable instructions, computerapplications, and/or computer-executable instruction modules stored onnon-transitory computer-readable media or medium.

Exemplary Software Architecture

The present embodiments may relate to writing rules as a decision treecomposed of functions, and running them in a simulation environment forvalidation, and then publishing them to an operational productionenvironment. The content may be static when shifting betweenenvironments by running or using the same set of rules/functions. Rulesmay be executed based upon available data, as well additional data thatmay be requested on demand. A larger execution may be performed acrossmultiple decision trees composed of the business rules.

In one aspect, a software architecture that wraps the business decisiontrees to abstract them from the environment they are running in may beprovided. The software architecture may be invoked via distributed HTTPcalls in an operational environment and testware in the simulationenvironment. The business rules may be written once and put throughvarious rigors of simulation or software testing until performed isverified, and after which the business rules may be published to aproduction environment. The architecture may provide the interface tothe rules, as well as fulfill requests for additional data by the rulesin order to execute the entire decision tree. The business rules may notknow the source of data at run time, and requirements for fulfillment ofdata requests may be provided at design time.

The business rules may be written once and may be run in any environmentwith different data sources being provided. A specific line of business(such as auto, life, health, renters, or homeowners insurance, or mutualfunds or loans), or other end user, may not know whether or not theyhave the data. The line of business will just ask for it, and thesoftware architecture will ensure it is provided. The sources of thedata may change based upon environment, business context, or what otherdata is available. The line of business may provide novel data elementsdirectly when performing discovery activities or developing new rules,and then work with software developers on how to source the data.

The software architecture supports the saving of the decision tree stateso it may be resumed after the additional data is required whennecessary. This approach may be used in any business context, it maydrive business processes, business models, user experiences (web ormobile), and in any part of the company. In situations where it isdriving a user experience, predictive behavior models developed throughanalytics and data science research may provide custom experiences tousers. The user experience may not need to have business context, and itmay provide the data available and be driven by the softwarearchitecture.

In one aspect, the business rules may relate to financial or insuranceservices, and may relate to determining whether or not a customer datais available, whether a customer is eligible for certain products,services, and/or discounts, what the premium would be for a specificcustomer for a specific type of product or service (such as auto orhomeowners insurance), what an interest rate would be for the customerfor a specific type of loan (home or auto loan), etc. The softwarearchitecture may provide a data channel or envelope within or by whichexisting data is accessed or retrieved.

The software architecture may provide by a means by which financialand/or insurance services (such as providing quotes for auto loans orauto insurance), and other products and services, are provided oroffered to customers. Other use cases of the present embodiments mayinclude providing or determining credit scores, insurance premiums ordiscounts, customer address information, insurance renewals, new accountor loan eligibility, etc. Additional use cases may include handlinginsurance claims or home appraisals.

First Exemplary Resource Discovery Agent

The intention of the resource discovery agent is to provide a means ofshifting the system of knowledge contained in requirements and businessanalysts into a discoverable set of resources. To satisfy this goal theresource discovery agent may generate and operate on a flow of messages,satisfying message(s) until a resource (typically a business conclusion)is reached. These messages may be processed using three mainsubcomponents: a repository of knowledge, a resource locator, and thecore discovery agent itself.

Requirements

A resource may be defined as any information that can be named: adocument or image, a temporal service (e.g., “current time”), acollection of other resources, a non-virtual object (e.g., a person[such as a customer] or a premium), and so on. In other words, in modernsystems, any concept that might be the target of an author's, orconsumer's, reference must fit within the definition of a resource. Inother words, a resource may be a conceptual mapping of data to a givenset of entities.

Understanding a majority of content, such as business rules, ourcustomers, or even a premium may all be considered a resource—one maybuild a means of interpreting resources and transforming them into acommon language that may be analyzed and interpreted to fulfill twofundamental business requirements: analysis and resource acquisition.

Analysis

The requirements of analysis may be as follows. Business partners mayneed the ability to define the resource common language (a term and itsdefinition), and to trace between internal and external resources(definition terms). Business partners may also need the ability to traceall available resources, even if they are not currently being leveragedby the larger system.

Resource Acquisition

The requirements of resource acquisition may be as follows. Businesspartners may need the ability to alter resources without impacting anexisting resource, and to simulate a resource. Further, businesspartners may need the ability to manually create a resource, and/or tohave myriad versions of a similar resource.

The Discovery Process

The discovery process may be driven through a recursive flow ofmessages. These messages may be a lean, yet stateful representation ofresources being requested and additional resources potentially needed tosatisfy such requests. There may be three types of these keys messagesused to relay state to the rest of the system: request data message,resolved data message, and unresolved data message.

Request Data Messages

Request data messages may be inquiry type of messages received andbroadcast by the resource discovery agent, may often be referred to assimply “request messages”, and may be comprised of three key concepts:one or more requested resources (i.e., “what resource(s) do I want toknow more about?”), zero or more payload resources (i.e., “whatresource(s) do I already know about?”), and an optional request messagemay represent another “triggering” resource request.

Resources often require other resources in order to be derived. Forexample, a customer's credential may be a resource required to derivecustomer information, or an address resource may be necessary to deriveeligibility on a household. The resources needed to derive otherresources may be called input, or payload, resources. The payloadresources may be a critical component of the discovery system and makeup the repository of knowledge. This repository of knowledge isdiscussed later.

The discovery process may receive an initial request message anddetermine if the resource(s) may be deduced based upon the messagepayload. If the origin payload cannot be used to satisfy the requestedresource, the resource discovery agent may broadcast a separate requestmessage to attempt to locate the resource(s) necessary to fulfill theoriginal requested resources(s). This recursive flow of messagesorchestrated by the resource discovery agent to attempt to resolve therequested resource based upon the knowledge built into the system may bereferred to as continuation.

Resolved Data Messages

Resolved data messages may be broadcast by the resource discovery agentwhen a resource for a corresponding request message is satisfied. Thisis considered a “final” broadcast for a given request message (one oftwo final broadcast messages). These resolved messages may be comprisedof two key concepts: an origin request data message (i.e., “who askedfor this resource?”), and the requested resource(s) (i.e., the results).

A given resource may contain more information than what was requested,and as such, the resolved message may only contain the information beingrequested. This is done to ensure resources are not exposed withoutbeing explicitly requested.

Unresolved Data Messages

Unresolved data messages are broadcast by the resource discovery agentwhen a resource for a corresponding request message cannot be satisfied.This is considered a “final” broadcast for a given request message (oneof two final broadcast messages). These unresolved messages may becomprised of two key concepts: an origin request data message (i.e.,“who asked for this resource?”), and a reason for failure (i.e., “whythe resource discovery agent could not resolve the requestedresource?”).

An unresolved data message may be triggered for many reasons. Itspurpose may be to handle myriad “error” or negative flow scenarios andforce the resource discovery agent to broadcast useful information as towhy the unresolvable state exists. These flows may (but don't have to)be triggered by:

-   -   a missing resource/service facade—the resource provider (often a        web service) may not be available;    -   a missing resource in the repository—the repository of knowledge        does not know anything about the requested resource, even if the        resource is a part of the schema; and    -   infinite recursion—the resource being requested may be derived        from a resource it is dependent on (rare).

Rating Example

The following example is merely to illustrate the concept of theresource discovery process and may not reflect any true businessdecisions or work flows. A customer wishes to request a quote—orpremium—for a homeowner insurance policy. The customer may enter theirpersonal information and the address of the home for which they wish toattain a quote.

The personal information may represent a couple of resources: customerand location. When a request for “the premium resource” enters throughthe public API, the discovery agent may inspect the message and triggera lookup for a resource definition. The resource definition may be aresource itself that describes everything about another resource. Thismay include protocols, operations, parameters and the common languagebinding between the underlying service and the resource understood bythe system (referred commonly at data bindings).

The resource discovery agent may then inspect the resource definitionand detect, using the data bindings, if the payload of the messagecontains the information necessary to retrieve the requested resource.In this sample, a premium may be requested, however, the resourcedefinition may declare that the customer and/or property must firstcontain data for customer and location eligibility. The resourcediscovery agent may detect that data is missing, and trigger anotherrequest message for the missing content. The resource discovery agentmay then detect through the same process that in order to determineeligibility it needs a standardized address indicator. The system ofknowledge may not actually understand or use the data—it may merely bean agent of the information, serving as handler for myriad resources tosatisfy the original request. This flow may be illustrated as:

>> request for premium (request data message);

-   -   >> request for eligibility (request data message);        -   >> request for address standardization (request data            message);        -   <<retrieve standardized resource (discovery resolution data            message);    -   >> request for eligibility (request data message);    -   <<retrieve eligibility resource (discovery resolution data        message);

>> request for premium (request data message); and

<<retrieve premium resource (resolved data message).

Once the resource discovery agent detects that a resource may beretrieved, it may leverage a resource facade to trigger the retrieval ofthe resource. The resource facade may simply be a function of the systemthat is capable of interacting with internal and/or externalresources—regardless of their underlying protocols, like a SOAP or RESTbased resource facades. The number of facades may grow as new protocolsare defined or capabilities are added to the system.

As request messages are satisfied, the discovery agent may have twooptions:

-   -   First, publish a “resolved message.” A resolved message is a        message that may indicate to the public API (and other        interested parties—such as a logging framework) that an initial        request message has been completely satisfied. Resolved messages        may only be published when the original request is completely        satisfied. Based upon the above example, the resolved message        may only be published when the “retrieve premium resource” is        successfully obtained by the resource discovery agent.    -   Second, the discovery agent may publish another “request        message.” Request messages are public when there are remaining        “triggering” request messages. Using the above example, the        triggering request message for “request for address        standardization” is the “request for eligibility” who        subsequently was triggered by the “request for premium.”        Therefore, in the above example, request messages may be        published twice for both the “request for eligibility” and        “request for premium.”

Conversely, when request messages cannot be satisfied the discoveryagent may publish a “unresolved message.” It is the job of the resourcediscovery agent to provide a highly descriptive message so analysts maytriage the cause and potentially implement a solution. Some unresolvedmessages may always be unresolved, such as when the request message isrequesting information unknown to the repository of knowledge.

While the resource discovery process may seem chatty with the myriadmessages being broadcast, these messages may be “cheap” to construct andhandled primarily by the resource discovery agent. The resourcediscovery agent detects if a resource may be retrieved before attemptingto trigger a network or resource request, which all may occur inside ofthe discovery agent.

System/Repository of Knowledge

At the core of the resource discovery process may be a common language,or vocabulary, defined in a schema and understood by the discoveryagent. Request messages may use this vocabulary in order to triggerresource requests—neglecting to use this common vocabulary may preventresources from being discovered.

However, resources themselves do not and will not use this samevocabulary—it is an unrealistic (albeit ideal) expectation. This iswhere the repository of knowledge (often referred to as simply “theregistry”) comes into play. Resources may be “registered” with therepository of knowledge using standard protocol documents, such as WSDLsor WADLs. These documents may be processed and transformed into astandard and verbose format called resource definitions. The resourcedefinitions may contain all the information necessary to retrieve theunderlying resource: such as protocol (SOAP, REST, other), endpoints,input parameters (including but not limited to HTTP headers and resourcedependencies), output parameters and much more.

The parameters (both input and output) are at the crux of how theresource discovery process works. Given the request driven nature of thesystem, the origin or continuation message may be ultimately asking fora resource. The “ask” may evaluate the repository of knowledge, inspectall the available outputs of all registered resources, and match theresource definition with the requested resource. Resources may notnaturally use the same vocabulary as the requestor. For this reason,each parameter in the resource definition for a given resource (bothinputs and outputs) may contain the vocabulary of the resource itselfand a binding to the vocabulary defined in the common language schema.While parameter binding may be critical to the repository of knowledge,not all parameters are required to be bound, rather only the parametersthat are important to the system or required to obtain the underlyingresource. Additionally, parameters may be configured with defaultvalues.

The workflow (based upon the previous example) may be summarized as:

(1) the resource discovery agent may receive a “request for premium”;

(2) the resource discovery agent may leverage the repository ofknowledge to glean which resource definition contains “premium” as anoutput parameter;

(3) the resource discovery agent may process the corresponding resourcedefinition input bindings (the common vocabulary) to determine if theresource may be obtained based upon the current state;

(4) the resource discovery agent may bind the common vocabulary valuesto the input parameters of the underlying resource being requested usingthe resources niche vocabulary; and/or

(5) the resource discovery agent may obtain the resource and bind theoutput parameters of the resource back into the commonvocabulary—thereby satisfying the request for data and returning thevalues in the common schema vocabulary.

Priority

Priority of a resource may become a decision of the business that isconfigured as part of the resource definitions themselves. Withreference to FIG. 11, take for example the following scenario where therequestor is requesting resources “a”, “b”, “c.” This fictitious exampleoutlines one of many runtime decisions that need to be made based uponbusiness decision and input. As one can see, if you were to simplyleverage the output parameters to determine which service to call, youwould choose resource 1; however, the cost of that service is high so itis more cost effective to trigger resource 2 and 3. This isn't to saythat you would never choose resource 1 (perhaps you pay more for 1because it is more accurate or reliable and a critical part of thebusiness flow). In this scenario, you may perhaps honor priority abovecost.

In the end, the repository of knowledge may be a repository of availableresources espoused with configurable meta data to drive business runtimedecisions.

Messaging & Event Processing

Messages published to the resource discovery agent, such as requested,resolved and unresolved, may be critical to the flow of the resourcediscovery process. However, they can also be used to derive informationabout the state of the system—such as the availability of a resource,how many times a resource is being requested and other analyticalinformation. Such information may be incredibly powerful inunderstanding how to optimize the customer experience, glean businessevents, and provide a foundation for myriad other business and/or systemlevel decisions. As such, additional message handlers may be attached tothe system to “log” these system level events to a data store of theconsumers choice (such as a relational DB, Kafka, or any other datastorage solution).

While these messages may be processed in real time, by storing them offas immutable facts in a separate storage solution it positions thebusiness and systems to run analytics or research historical data withnew hypotheses.

Performance

While performance should be the concern of all modern interfaces it doesnot need to be the concern of the data driven process. The data drivenprocess may be focused on one thing and one thing alone—resourceresolution. This does not imply the data driven process may not provideresponsive and pleasing customer experience, rather the concern ofproviding such an experience should be shifted to the experience layerby leveraging the resource discovery messages.

The resource discovery agent may provide ample information via themessaging and event processing. These messages may be leveraged togenerate views necessary to provide an amazing customer experience.Consider the resource discovery agent publishing 1000 request for datamessages, 950 of which resolve the data, and 50 are consideredunresolved (resource outage or a simple data issue). Remember that eachof these internal messages may be published to an event processingqueue. In processing this queue we learn that this specific requesttakes ˜600 milliseconds. The user interface layer may access a view oftimings for a given request and display an accurate progress bar orroute the customer down a different flow (for excessively long runs).Additionally, the user interface may even react and position a customerfor “unresolved” requests (knowing ahead of time there is a 5% chance offailure).

The underlying fact is that we may leverage the event processing todrive a better and more responsive customer experience withoutnecessitating the need to complicate and solve for performance insidethe resource discovery agent—this may include asynchronous and parallelresource discovery for a single resource request.

Asynchronous Processing

The majority of resources may follow a traditional pattern ofrequest/response where the response is the resource being requested.However, several resources follow a more asynchronous pattern where yourequest the resource and retrieve a unique identifier for that request(not the resource itself). In this scenario, the requestor may have tosubmit subsequent requests for the actual resource using the uniqueidentifier from the original request. This may be done when the resourceitself takes some time to locate. This pattern may be considered apolling process, where the caller polls the resource provider for agiven resource.

The asynchronous pattern potentially complicates the resource discoveryagent in that the resource being requested isn't actually what isinitially returned from the original request. Logic may be built intothe system but it may stretch the core capabilities of thesystem—remember, the discovery agent may be about simply locating aresource. The unique identifier may not be the resource being requested,rather a “pointer” to the actual resource. This capability may be builtinto the repository of knowledge, but it may shift the core capabilitiesof the resource discovery agent and add unnecessary complexity to thesystem. To alleviate this issue, a new capability may be built to managethe asynchronous flows—such as establishing a new service to manage theresource identifier and “polling” process, or reaching out to theresource owner to add a new capability to the service to circumvent theasynchronous pattern.

Ultimately the resource discovery agent may be about discoveringresources. The intention may be to shift conversations and requirementsfrom a systems level of thinking to a business, or common language wayof conveying information. For example, as a business we often staterequirements like: “in order to determine if a risk is eligible I needto first call the address standardization service.” With the resourcediscovery agent, requirements may shift focus from service oriented toresource oriented, such as “in order to determine if this home iseligible, I need to first make sure the address is valid.” By doingthis, the concern of “address standardization” may be shifted to be aconcern of the system and positions business analysts to focus ondefining business centered requirements. In the end, for this example,it should not matter if the address is standardized via an internal“address standardization service.” Rather, what truly matters to thebusiness may be that we have a valid address for the risk we are willingto accept or reject.

Second Exemplary Resource Discovery Agent

In yet another aspect, a resource discovery agent for providing valuesof datums to an application which supplies requested information to auser may be provided. The resource discovery agent may comprise aprocess, a rule, and a plurality of dynamically utilized interfaces. Theprocess may be configured to implement a function and acquire values ofdatums that are provided to the application. The rule may be applied bythe process and configured to require that a condition be met. Theinterfaces may include a first interface configured to send a firstrequest to a first service to receive a value of a first datum andprovide a value of a second datum to the first service as an input, anda second interface which is utilized if the value of the second datum isnot known before the first interface is utilized, the second interfaceconfigured to send a second request to a second service to receive avalue of the second datum and provide a value of a third datum to thesecond service as an input. The resource discovery agent may includeadditional, fewer, or alternate components and/or functionality,including that discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the process may be further configured to acquire values ofintermediate datums, which include the values needed to acquire thevalues of datums that are provided to the application. A portion of thevalues of the intermediate datums may be received from the user. Atleast one interface may be utilized to request a portion of the valuesof the intermediate datums from at least one service. The value of thesecond datum or the third datum may be received from the user. The valueof the third datum may be received from a third service. The conditionto be met may include a minimum age of the user. The condition to be metmay include a valid home address of the user.

Additional Considerations

In this description, references to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or“embodiments” mean that the feature or features being referred to areincluded in at least one embodiment of the technology. Separatereferences to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or “embodiments” inthis description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and arealso not mutually exclusive unless so stated and/or except as will bereadily apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. Forexample, a feature, structure, act, etc. described in one embodiment mayalso be included in other embodiments, but is not necessarily included.Thus, the current technology can include a variety of combinationsand/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.

Although the present application sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legalscope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forthat the end of this patent and equivalents. The detailed description isto be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possibleembodiment since describing every possible embodiment would beimpractical. Numerous alternative embodiments may be implemented, usingeither current technology or technology developed after the filing dateof this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Certain embodiments are described herein as including logic or a numberof routines, subroutines, applications, or instructions. These mayconstitute either software (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readablemedium or in a transmission signal) or hardware. In hardware, theroutines, etc., are tangible units capable of performing certainoperations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. Inexample embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone,client or server computer system) or one or more hardware modules of acomputer system (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may beconfigured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) ascomputer hardware that operates to perform certain operations asdescribed herein.

In various embodiments, computer hardware, such as a processing element,may be implemented as special purpose or as general purpose. Forexample, the processing element may comprise dedicated circuitry orlogic that is permanently configured, such as an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), or indefinitely configured, such as an FPGA,to perform certain operations. The processing element may also compriseprogrammable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within ageneral-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that istemporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. Itwill be appreciated that the decision to implement the processingelement as special purpose, in dedicated and permanently configuredcircuitry, or as general purpose (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the term “processing element” or equivalents should beunderstood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that isphysically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), ortemporarily configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manneror to perform certain operations described herein. Consideringembodiments in which the processing element is temporarily configured(e.g., programmed), each of the processing elements need not beconfigured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example,where the processing element comprises a general-purpose processorconfigured using software, the general-purpose processor may beconfigured as respective different processing elements at differenttimes. Software may accordingly configure the processing element toconstitute a particular hardware configuration at one instance of timeand to constitute a different hardware configuration at a differentinstance of time.

Computer hardware components, such as communication elements, memoryelements, processing elements, and the like, may provide information to,and receive information from, other computer hardware components.Accordingly, the described computer hardware components may be regardedas being communicatively coupled. Where multiple of such computerhardware components exist contemporaneously, communications may beachieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) that connect the computer hardware components. In embodimentsin which multiple computer hardware components are configured orinstantiated at different times, communications between such computerhardware components may be achieved, for example, through the storageand retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiplecomputer hardware components have access. For example, one computerhardware component may perform an operation and store the output of thatoperation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. Afurther computer hardware component may then, at a later time, accessthe memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Computerhardware components may also initiate communications with input oroutput devices, and may operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation).

The various operations of example methods described herein may beperformed, at least partially, by one or more processing elements thatare temporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configuredto perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processing elements may constitute processingelement-implemented modules that operate to perform one or moreoperations or functions. The modules referred to herein may, in someexample embodiments, comprise processing element-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at leastpartially processing element-implemented. For example, at least some ofthe operations of a method may be performed by one or more processingelements or processing element-implemented hardware modules. Theperformance of certain of the operations may be distributed among theone or more processing elements, not only residing within a singlemachine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some exampleembodiments, the processing elements may be located in a single location(e.g., within a home environment, an office environment or as a serverfarm), while in other embodiments the processing elements may bedistributed across a number of locations.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions orprocesses of a machine (e.g., a computer with a processing element andother computer hardware components) that manipulates or transforms datarepresented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical)quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus.

The patent claims at the end of this patent application are not intendedto be construed under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless traditionalmeans-plus-function language is expressly recited, such as “means for”or “step for” language being explicitly recited in the claim(s).

Although the invention has been described with reference to theembodiments illustrated in the attached drawing figures, it is notedthat equivalents may be employed and substitutions made herein withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.

We claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method for retrieving informationfrom a plurality of information services and providing it to a publicapplication programming interface (API), the computer-implemented methodcomprising, via one or more processors and/or transceivers: receiving afirst request data message using a core discovery agent, the firstrequest data message including at least one requested datum, for which avalue is sought, and at least one known datum, for which a value isknown; calling a resource locator to request a location of aninformation service that provides a value for the requested datum;calling a resource definitions database to find a definition associatedwith the requested datum, wherein the definition includes the locationof the information service and one or more input datums required by theinformation service in order to provide values for the requested datum;returning the location of the information service and at least one inputdatum of the one or more input datums if the resource definitionsdatabase includes the definition associated with the requested datum;transmitting a second request data message from the core discovery agentto itself if the input datum does not match the known datum, the secondrequest data message including the original requested datum, the knowndatum, and the input datum as a new requested datum; calling a resourcefaçade to contact the information service if the input datum matches theknown datum; transmitting a first information service message includingthe requested datum and the known datum from the resource facade to theinformation service; receiving a second information service message fromthe information service including a value for the requested datum;returning the requested datum and its value from the resource facade tothe core discovery agent; and transmitting a resolved data messageincluding the requested datum and its value from the core discoveryagent to the public API.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising transmitting an unresolved data message from the corediscovery agent to the public API if the resource definitions databasedoes not include a definition for the requested datum, wherein theunresolved data message includes a reason why a value could not be foundfor the requested datum.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising transmitting an unresolved data message from the corediscovery agent to the public API if the resource facade cannot contactthe information service or if the information service does not return avalue for the requested datum, wherein the unresolved data messageincludes a reason why a value could not be found for the requesteddatum.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising, via the one or more processors and/or transceivers:receiving the second request data message; calling the resource locatorto request the location of the information service that provides a valuefor the new requested datum; calling the resource definitions databaseto find a definition associated with the new requested datum; returningthe location of the information service; calling a resource facade tocontact the information service; transmitting a third informationservice message including the new requested datum from the resourcefacade to the information service; receiving a fourth informationservice message from the information service including a value for thenew requested datum; returning the new requested datum and its valuefrom the resource facade to the core discovery agent; and transmitting adiscovery resolution data message including the new requested datum andits value from the core discovery agent to itself.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising translatingthe requested datum and the known datum into a protocol used by theinformation service before transmitting the first information servicemessage from the resource facade.
 6. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising translating the requested datum and itsvalue from the second information service message into a protocol usedby the core discovery agent before returning the requested datum and itsvalue to the core discovery agent.
 7. A computer-implemented method forretrieving information from a plurality of information services andproviding it to a public application programming interface (API), thecomputer-implemented method comprising, via one or more processorsand/or transceivers: receiving a first request data message using a corediscovery agent, the first request data message including at least onerequested datum, for which a value is sought, and at least one knowndatum, for which a value is known; calling a resource locator to requesta location of an information service that provides a value for therequested datum; calling a resource definitions database to find adefinition associated with the requested datum, wherein the definitionincludes the location of the information service and one or more inputdatums required by the information service in order to provide valuesfor the requested datum; returning the location of the informationservice and at least one input datum of the one or more input datums ifthe resource definitions database includes the definition associatedwith the requested datum; transmitting a second request data messagefrom the core discovery agent to itself if the input datum does notmatch the known datum, the second request data message including theoriginal requested datum, the known datum, and the input datum as a newrequested datum; calling a resource facade to contact the informationservice if the input datum matches the known datum; translating therequested datum and the known datum into a protocol used by theinformation service; transmitting a first information service messageincluding translations of the requested datum and the known datum fromthe resource facade to the information service; receiving a secondinformation service message from the information service including avalue for the requested datum; translating the requested datum and itsvalue from the second information service message into a protocol usedby the core discovery agent; returning the requested datum and its valuefrom the resource facade to the core discovery agent; and transmitting aresolved data message including the requested datum and its value fromthe core discovery agent to the public API.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 7, further comprising transmitting an unresolved datamessage from the core discovery agent to the public API if the resourcedefinitions database does not include a definition for the requesteddatum, wherein the unresolved data message includes a reason why a valuecould not be found for the requested datum.
 9. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 7, further comprising transmitting an unresolved datamessage from the core discovery agent to the public API if the resourcefacade cannot contact the information service or if the informationservice does not return a value for the requested datum, wherein theunresolved data message includes a reason why a value could not be foundfor the requested datum.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7,further comprising, via the one or more processors and/or transceivers:receiving the second request data message; calling the resource locatorto request the location of the information service that provides a valuefor the new requested datum; calling the resource definitions databaseto find a definition associated with the new requested datum; returningthe location of the information service; calling a resource facade tocontact the information service; transmitting a third informationservice message including the new requested datum from the resourcefacade to the information service; receiving a fourth informationservice message from the information service including a value for thenew requested datum; returning the new requested datum and its valuefrom the resource facade to the core discovery agent; and transmitting adiscovery resolution data message including the new requested datum andits value from the core discovery agent to itself.
 11. A computingdevice for retrieving information from a plurality of informationservices and providing it to a public application programming interface(API), the computing device comprising: a communication elementconfigured to provide electronic communication with a communicationnetwork; a processing element in electronic communication with thecommunication element and a memory element, the processing elementconfigured to: receive a first request data message using a corediscovery agent, the first request data message including at least onerequested datum, for which a value is sought, and at least one knowndatum, for which a value is known, call a resource locator to request alocation of an information service that provides a value for therequested datum, call a resource definitions database to find adefinition associated with the requested datum, wherein the definitionincludes the location of the information service and one or more inputdatums required by the information service in order to provide valuesfor the requested datum, return the location of the information serviceand at least one input datum of the one or more input datums if theresource definitions database includes the definition associated withthe requested datum, transmit a second request data message from thecore discovery agent to itself if the input datum does not match theknown datum, the second request data message including the originalrequested datum, the known datum, and the input datum as a new requesteddatum; call a resource facade to contact the information service if theinput datum matches the known datum, transmit a first informationservice message including the requested datum and the known datum fromthe resource facade to the information service, receive a secondinformation service message from the information service including avalue for the requested datum, return the requested datum and its valuefrom the resource facade to the core discovery agent, and transmit aresolved data message including the requested datum and its value fromthe core discovery agent to the public API.
 12. The computing device ofclaim 11, wherein the processing element is further configured totransmit an unresolved data message from the core discovery agent to thepublic API if the resource definitions database does not include adefinition for the requested datum, wherein the unresolved data messageincludes a reason why a value could not be found for the requesteddatum.
 13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processingelement is further configured to transmit an unresolved data messagefrom the core discovery agent to the public API if the resource facadecannot contact the information service or if the information servicedoes not return a value for the requested datum, wherein the unresolveddata message includes a reason why a value could not be found for therequested datum.
 14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein theprocessing element is further configured to: receive the second requestdata message, call the resource locator to request the location of theinformation service that provides a value for the new requested datum,call the resource definitions database to find a definition associatedwith the new requested datum, return the location of the informationservice, call a resource facade to contact the information service,transmit a third information service message including the new requesteddatum from the resource facade to the information service, receive afourth information service message from the information serviceincluding a value for the new requested datum, return the new requesteddatum and its value from the resource facade to the core discoveryagent, and transmit a discovery resolution data message including thenew requested datum and its value from the core discovery agent toitself.
 15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processingelement is further configured to translate the requested datum and theknown datum into a protocol used by the information service beforetransmitting the first information service message from the resourcefacade.
 16. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processingelement is further configured to translate the requested datum and itsvalue from the second information service message into a protocol usedby the core discovery agent before returning the requested datum and itsvalue to the core discovery agent.
 17. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1, wherein the definition further includes a format or protocolfor the requested datums and the input datum required by the informationservice, wherein calling the resource façade to contact the informationservice if the input datum matches the known datum includes calling theresource façade to translate the requested datums and the known datumsinto the format or protocol identified in the definition.
 18. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the definition furtherincludes a format or protocol for the requested datums and the inputdatum required by the information service, wherein calling the resourcefaçade to contact the information service if the input datum matches theknown datum includes calling the resource façade to translate therequested datums and the known datums into the format or protocolidentified in the definition.
 19. The computing device of claim 11,wherein the definition further includes a format or protocol for therequested datums and the input datum required by the informationservice, wherein calling the resource façade to contact the informationservice if the input datum matches the known datum includes calling theresource façade to translate the requested datums and the known datumsinto the format or protocol identified in the definition.